English

A hookah.

Alternative forms

• hooka
• hukka
• hukkah
• huqqa
• huqqah

Noun

hookah ‎(plural hookahs)

1. A pipe with a long flexible tube that draws the smoke through water, traditionally used for smoking tobacco, which is often flavored.
   • 1831, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction:

     In India, the lower orders use a hookah or hubble bubble, which is made of a cocoa-nut shell well cleaned out, having a hole through the soft eye of the shell, and another on the opposite side, a little lower down, the first of which is used for the chauffoir, and the other to suck or draw the smoke from.

   • 1954, Alexander Alderson, The Subtle Minotaur, chapter 18:

     The lounge was furnished in old English oak and big Knole settees. There were rugs from Tabriz and Kerman on the highly polished floor. […] A table lamp was fashioned from a silver Egyptian hookah.

   • 1960, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, chapter 9:

     When Uncle Jack caught me, he kept me laughing about a preacher who hated going to church so much that every day he stood at his gate in his dressing-gown, smoking a hookah and delivering five-minute sermons to any passers-by who desired spiritual comfort.

Synonyms

• waterpipe
• hubble-bubble
• hubbly bubbly
• narghile
• shisha

Translations